


Winter’s Symphony

by Wealthywetsunny



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Doggy Style, F/M, Forest Sex, Smut, Underage - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:40:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23147881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wealthywetsunny/pseuds/Wealthywetsunny
Summary: Winter’s already upon them and Joel’s starting to get worried. It’s a routine hunting trip and they expect to be done by sundown. Of course everything takes a turn when the temperature drops and they’re the only ones around to keep each other warm.
Relationships: Joel Miller/Ellie Williams
Comments: 24
Kudos: 298





	Winter’s Symphony

He watches her line up the shot and something akin to pride swells inside his chest. She’s not new to this, but he’s never seen her handiwork up close. He’s never held his breath along with her and saw how focused she became as she pressed the scope to her eye and readied herself to pull the trigger. 

There’s a beat of silence where everything in the world stills. 

Then the bullet rips clean through her target, impressive considering how small the rabbit is. He gives his grunt of approval when she glances over her shoulder with a smile, but he can’t bring himself to say anything else. The harsh reality of the circumstances they’re facing hits him. The smaller the animal, the less food they’ll get. 

Their already dwindling supply of meat can’t take this winter hit. 

“Go on and get it, kiddo.” 

He leans himself against the frozen bark of a nearby tree. Arms crossed to preserve some shred of body heat. His eyes do a constant sweep as she plods through the snow to her kill. 

Her eyes are bright when she returns to him, a kind of joy he hasn’t seen in her in too long. She blows out an agitated breath when she hands the rabbit over. Fingers struggling to close properly, he notes. She rubs her hands together and jumps up and down, shaking her limbs frantically. “It’s so fucking cold.”

“Summer’ll be here before you know it.” 

She snorts her disapproval, understandably so. It's the middle of winter and it’s gotta be somewhere below freezing. Snow blanketed the ground about a week ago and it’s yet to melt, leaving the world a shiny white that makes his eyes burn. He wouldn’t be surprised if the already dwindling population has been halved because of the cold. 

“C’mon, still got more to do today. We’ll start a fire when we get home. Get some blankets. Just need some more food first.” 

She nods her head. And for the moment they walk side by side, and he likes it best like that. When Ellie is somewhere in his periphery, living despite all odds. 

“The blankets we found are crap.” 

“Better than nothing while we wait out the winter before we move on. Besides, it’s just a little while longer.”

“‘Till what?”

He turns his head to track her frown and right then he can’t bring himself to look away. He’s afraid to take his eyes off her. A nervous habit he supposes, the way he always turns in circles to find her when they’re outside. It’s well deserved paranoia. He’s got every reason to be scared. David’s men very well may be following them. Ready to gun them down, to finish the hell that Joel and Ellie caused them. 

He blows out a tired sigh, watching his breath cloud out in front of him. She has a point. There’s nothing around for miles, at least not that they can see. 

“We need to stop, Joel.” 

“A couple more miles. We still don’t got enough food yet.” He doesn’t want her to suffer, God knows she’s been through enough, but they don’t have a choice here. They’ve got two rabbits and a squirrel, something that can last them a week if they really stretch it. 

She’s about to argue, he knows she is by the way her face twists, and it’s like that when his foot catches on a rock and makes him stumble and go down hard on his knees. Ellie’s been walking slow for a while, curled up and freezing, but now she rushes forward. Fingers turned dead from the cold grab his shoulder and  _ squeeze _ .

“Joel. Joel!” 

“M’fine. Just give me a minute.”

“You’re  _ not _ fine,” her tone is hard, but there’s concern ruining the soft lines of her face. He looks up at her, takes in the pink of her nose and the frosted tips of her hair and relents. 

“Yeah. We should—“ he jerks his head towards the deeper, thicker part of the forest, the part he’s been trying to avoid. There’s too many shadows and not enough vantage points. It’d be easy for a group of infected to catch them off guard. 

It’s gotta be done though. The unspoken was clear as day;  _ the shelter those trees offer is better than nothing.  _

Ellie is a godsend at this moment. Carrying the brunt of his weight. Walking them deep into the forest with as much stealth as they can manage. It’s slow going, but they make-do. They kip down against the bottom of a cliff’s edge, safe only because they don’t have to watch their backs. 

“Here, sit, Joel. I’ll get the fire started.” 

“No, no, let me.”

“Joel.” She glares at him, though it lacks any mirth it might’ve had before this winter had begun. “I can do just fine. Sit and rest for once.”

Ellie stomps off before he can protest. Gathering sticks and leaves under her arms and dropping them unceremoniously at his feet. He watches her from where he’s sat on the ground. The chill is seeping through his clothes, making hypothermia all the more likely. 

“We need some sort of bedding.”

She’s kneeling now. Loose strands of hair hanging in her eyes. Hiding her emotions. 

She doesn’t respond, keeps working away to light a spark from a piece of flint and steel that he doesn’t remember her having before.

He frowns, trying to find—not for the first time— any trace of the girl he knew before. Her mannerisms are different, each move calculated five steps before hand, her eyes always watching and tracking. Never letting her guard down. The flow of once endless words are now replaced with nothing but practicalities. 

“Didja hear me, kiddo?”

Nothing. She twists her wrist fast and grits her teeth when the flame doesn’t spark. 

“Ellie.”

“What?”

“We need bedding. Like leaves or something.”

She snarls, hands suddenly smashing into her little makeshift pyre. “What’s the point? The leaves are too damn wet!”

He swallows thickly at her outburst. Unsure what to say when she only stares at him. Chest heaving with each angry breath. 

He shifts, winces when his stitches pull. “Then get over here before we both freeze.” 

Ellie is slow to come to him. Pride makes her stiff when she finally sits beside him. 

“C’mon, let's get some sleep. We’ve got a long walk to Salt Lake tomorrow.” Joel rolls over without thought, collapses on his side with a pained huff. He holds his rifle against his chest, the cool metal of the barrel making him shiver.

“There’s no way I’m gonna be able to sleep in this.” 

“Don’t have a choice, Ellie.” 

He hears her sigh, then she shifts closer. So her shoes knock into the bends of his knees. “Can’t we use body heat. Like penguins.”

He chuckles, “Penguins, huh?”

“Yeah, yeah I read a book about it once. Back in the Pittsburgh QZ. A soldier—Winston—gave me whatever books he could find. One was about penguins. They all get in these huge clumps to share body heat.” 

Joel doesn’t need to think about whether that’s a good idea. He’s honestly just embarrassed he didn’t think of it himself. 

He turns to face her, not realizing how close they’d end up until he’s fully on his side and their noses brush. She flinches away, instincts probably, she never did tell him what David did to her. Why he walked into a building ravaged by flames to find her straddling a man whose face was all but gone because she had continually hacked at him. 

Whatever the case, he doesn’t take it personally. He does, however, squirm a little closer and murmurs to her that if they intend to not freeze they do need to actually huddle together. 

Ellie scrunches her face at him. Thinking maybe. It draws his eyes to the absent place where hair should be along her eyebrow. He follows the tiny scar with his probing gaze and regrets not asking about it earlier. But back then even that seemed too invasive, scars rarely hold a good story. It could’ve been something as mundane as falling off a horse or getting knocked in the face by a rogue rock thrown by one of her classmates, but he never took that chance. 

He didn’t want to push her away. Now though…

Ellie sighs, making him refocus on the whole of her face. 

“Okay.” Her whisper is almost lost to the wind, and he considers telling her not to bother. That it’s alright if they didn’t, even if it might kill them, but then she’s getting closer and curling up against his chest. 

It’s painfully reminiscent of how he would hold his daughter when she was still a young girl. The kind of age that kids are when they love you unapologetically. Back when you’re their favorite person who can do no wrong. 

It makes his heart ache. 

Yet he wraps his arms around her and draws her closer. This isn’t Sarah, this is Ellie. The girl who has all the answers, the cure for this mess. She can single handedly save the world. She’ll have her name in the history books. That point seems moot now, after the hell she’s been through. 

He can’t dwell on that though, because she’s snuggling deeper against him, shivering violently, and he’s utterly unaware of her inner plight: that being this close to him, only a few layers of clothes separating them, it’s doing things to her body that she’d really rather not happen. 

She tries to stamp those feelings of lust down, let them die and fizzle out. It’s wrong to feel that way about Joel. Someone who should be like her father. But they’ve been forced to grow close, to be comfortable around each other. It’s normal, she’s sure, to want to be near him after all they’ve been through. 

Right now though, she can’t help herself when she nuzzles into his chest. When her lips purse and lay a kiss to his jacketed shoulder. “We’d be warmer if we were skin to skin.” She cringes after she says it, does it sound too obvious that that’s exactly what she wants?

Joel makes a considering sound before speaking, “if we gotta run, better not to do it half dressed.” 

She nods and absolutely doesn’t show her disappointment. Instead she closes her eyes and squirms closer, and it’s somehow like that when her hands find themselves cupping his cheeks. “You’re cold.”

For a moment she thinks he’s fallen asleep, but then he grunts lightly and her whole body sings with glee she hardly understands. 

Despite herself, her mind flies to Riley, to what her bestest, most dead of dead friends would tell her to say. She imagines, like most days, how Riley would react if she were still here. She’d probably laugh at Ellie’s inexperience, the way she can’t seem to make up her mind on how to feel about him. The same way she couldn’t quite decide how to feel about  _ her  _ until they were both dying and she pressed a kiss to her lips one last time. 

Riley would tell her to say something endearing and sexy. Something...cheesy. 

So she tugs Joel’s head down to bump against her own and mumbles a soft, “I can help.”

His eyes flutter behind closed lids, but when she doesn’t pull away they open. “Ellie—“

She kisses him. She knows that if she thought about it any longer she would’ve conisdered o a hundred and one ways why she shouldn’t, how things could go horribly wrong; so she just sort of goes for it. 

His lips are cold, freezing actually. They’re dead compared to her own. Which are just as cold, but she’s trying. Her lips move hesitantly and he doesn’t do a thing. Not even when she pulls out one of Riley’s tricks and nips at his bottom lip.

He jerks back then, coming to himself finally. Fighting with the same demon that’s inside her. 

She has to remind herself that he’s from a different time, that she’s heard so many reasons why people act the way they do. So much of human nature she doesn’t understand is given way to the fact that that’s just how things were. And back then, years ago, 15 year olds didn't kiss men in their 40s. 

Ellie doesn’t take it personally. She does, however, lay a hand on his cheek and stroke the scratchy beard he’s yet to trim. 

“You can kiss me.”

“No. No, I can’t Ellie.”

She has an insane urge to question him, to accuse him of not caring about her. But the last thing she wants is to seem like a child. 

“You can—“

“No.” There’s a steel edge in his voice that she’s never heard before. It makes her tremble as she looks up at him through long lashes. 

“Please.” She doesn’t give him a chance to respond, to even back away from her, because in the next moment she’s tearing at his coat insistently. Undoing buttons with shaky fingers until she gets a peak at the tanned skin of his chest. She slips her hand down the front of his jacket, pressing her palm flat against his skin. 

“Warm,” she mumbles when he just stares at her. Mouth half hanging open, taking in massive lungfuls of air. 

She drops her free hand down to the front of his jeans without a thought. Rubbing in small circles, watching his face intently. She so wants to do this right, to make him feel good. 

Keeping her eyes on his, she undoes his zipper, popping open the button as she kisses his neck soothingly. She feels his pulse jump rapidly, his panic showing through when his hand comes up quick to hold her by her waist. 

He groans her name, fingers tightening around her when he pulls her closer. Their proximity makes it hard to put her hand between them, but she manages to slip down the front of his jeans and past his boxers to brush his skin. 

“Ellie—“

“Quiet,” she reprimands, “infected might hear.”

He hums softly in acknowledgment, and he makes no move to stop her when she continues her gentle ministrations over her dick. Trying to work it fully into hardness. She’s hardly a pro at this, she’s not too sure she’s doing it right, but he’s not complaining. So she keeps that up until she can guide his half hard cock out of his jeans. 

Ellie glances down to see his length and has to suppress a groan. He’s thick and uncut, curving slightly to the left and weeping at the tip. 

“You want this,” She insists. 

“We can’t.” His argument sounds weak, even to his own ears. She realizes how loosely he’s hanging on right now, that he’s so close to just submitting, so she leans in and kisses him again. It’s like that—distracted as he is—that he feels her wrap a hand around his dick. 

She’s tiny, her hand smoother than his own by a long shot. His whole body shudders when she drags her hand up. She stops for a moment, watching him carefully. 

“That feels good?” She asks softly,  _ innocently _ . Her words make him groan and he buries his face in her neck. 

“God Ellie, yes.” 

He stifles a moan when she thumbs over the head of his cock. Smearing pre-cum into his skin. 

He pulls back to hold her cheek, to hold her chin tight and imagine actually doing this. Taking it a step further and just letting go. It’d be  _ so  _ easy. She’s a temptation, devil’s incarnate, and she’s his. 

He pulls her to his side, bringing his mouth to hers again. She’s hyper aware of his nakedness, his cock so close to where she most wants it. His lips leave her, going to explore down her neck, past the raised lines of her collar bones. While sucking on her skin his hands deftly attend to her coat. He unclasps a button and tugs it off her shoulders. He shoves her shirt up and moans at the sight she makes. 

His lips go back to her cold skin, traveling over the mountain of her breast. Through the fabric of her bra he laves over her nipple with the flat of his tongue. 

She arches into him, reaching behind her with frozen hands to get off that last piece of clothing.

Joel tries to stop her. His hand grabs her arm and he gives her this  _ look.  _ “You’re gonna freeze.” His voice is absolutely wrecked, husky and low, sending a pulse of heat through her. 

He doesn’t exactly stop her though when her bra falls away. His breath hitches, and he pulls her in closer. All thoughts of hypothermia gone, he grazes one of her nipples with his tongue. 

Ellie gasps at the sudden sensation. At the juxtaposition between the frigid air and the warmth of his mouth. His eyes shine with desire when he looks up at her, maybe searching for permission. When she doesn’t protest, he dives back in, taking her nipple into his mouth and sucking gently. 

“Ah, fuck, Joel,” she moans quietly. 

He switches breasts, moving to her other one with ease. Greedily enjoying the weight of them in his hands. His other hand slides down her legs, cupping her ass and clutching the front of her jeans. He’s too impatient to get her pants off, so for now he just slips his hand inside the best he can. 

His fingers pet her downy, light pubic hair, before he dips further. Emboldened by her moans he goes further. He finds her clit easily, moving to stroke it. She mewls with want, squirming at the touch of the rough pads of his fingers. He circles her clit in neat, tight circles, watching her arch her back. 

He soon leaves her nub and he slips an exploratory finger inside. She sucks in a deep breath, unused to it. 

She’s tight, clamping down on him immediately. Warm and unspoiled, slicker than he’d imagine. He tries a second digit when she begins to rock her hips, but he finds it almost impossible. Eventually she takes more of him with a gasp. At that reaction he begins to stroke the soft pad of her g-spot. 

Ellie reaches for his cock, where it still stands outside of his jeans. 

He doesn’t seem to mind at all, he just gives her this tense, crooked smile. “C’mere.” He knocks her hand away and when he lies back he pulls her with him. She lands haphazardly on top of his chest, hands balling up beside him. Pupils blown wide in anticipation and excitement that matches his own. “Think you can keep up?” 

She’s quiet for a few seconds, cheeks pink from either the cold or embarrassment at being so openly revealed to him. It’s cute, makes him stretch to kiss her again. 

Their lips stay locked together when he wrangles her jeans and panties off. They get caught at her thighs and he decides that that’ll have to do for now. 

He hesitates to line himself up. Letting her hover above him as he holds his cock in hand. 

Ellie sees the indecision on his face, the pure battle he’s having inside himself before she sinks down. It’s pure bliss, feeling his cock fill her up completely. 

She makes a tiny little squeak as he bottoms out and he shushes her gently, pressing a hand over her shoulder. Feeling the pulsing warmth she emits when he strokes down her arm. He pushes in her shirt, slipping inside her bra where he cups a nipple-tight breast. Squeeze. Pinch and pull…

“You look pretty up there.” He gestures down to where they’re connected. He whistles softly with paused ‘hmm’ and ‘haa’s’ that makes her skin prickle as he lets her adjust. Being oh so careful when his thumb swipes over her nipple as an afterthought—as though adding oil to a dying fire. She swallows a sound of greedy pleasure and tips her head back to watch the stars. 

He’s quick to touch her then, gorging on her flesh like she's a meal he’s been starving for. He gropes and pulls and strokes her until she's moaning and raw. Her coat is gone soon, shirt halfway down her shoulder, allowing him to feel along her nakedness like it'll be snatched from him at any time. As though a pack of infected will soon come, about to arrive and spoil his fun.

Ellie’s breath hitches with pleasure as his hips jerk up roughly, his cock delving down into her mound, practically curling inward and stabbing through smooth, wet muscles without much warning. He thrusts until his fat cock head hits her cervix. She whimpers, sucking in a breath that could have easily been a moan and watches him show teeth when he finally lets go and smiles. He’s rocking into her, hands finding her hips to lift her up and down. Pulling himself almost all the way out, only leaving the tip inside, before he dives in again, setting a rough and purposeful pace until she all but collapses down. Folding in half against his chest. 

The pleasure begins low in her gut almost ready to burst, but he slides away too soon, pushing her off him and moving in between her thighs as she lies on her back. Her legs fall open dutifully, letting him push in close and invade her senses. 

“Do you want this?” He breaths into her neck, kissing the skin there softly. 

“Yes.”

He pushes back inside with one fluid motion. There’s the intense feeling that he won’t be able to fit this time around, a deep pressure in her gut that builds before he snaps his hips and the rest of his cock tunnels in. 

She shudders around his girth, at the intimacy of him being so close. His head right next to hers as he leans down with his elbows propped up on the mud. 

Her cunt hugs his cock tight, forcing the breath from his lungs. He saws in and out a few times, slowing his movements to keep from cumming too soon. 

When she squirms and bucks her hips, hands scrambling to yank at his jacket, he finally speeds up. He fills her so perfectly, and yet there’s this ache for more. To have him fuck her into the ground like an animal. 

Ellie arches her back up when he hits a spot deep inside her, legs going to wrap around his waist. 

“Fuck, darling, look at you…” his voice drops an octave, deep as anything she’s ever heard. “You’re eager,” he breathes, going to kiss her lips tenderly. “Can you do something for me?”

She’s shaking, already close to her orgasm once more, and the idea of it being stolen from her again makes her snarl at him. “What?” She snaps, legs tightening around his waist when he slows his thrusts. 

His gaze darkness at her tone. “Careful, don’t make me bend you over my knee.”

Her body convulses at his words and she moans wantonly. 

“On your knees, wanna hold onto you.” He withdraws from her aching pussy, and just like that her release fades. He doesn’t leave her waiting for long though, in the next moment he’s flipping her over and getting her to present to him. 

When he presses a hand to the middle of her back she sinks her upper body to the ground. Her breasts just barely spill from her shirt, letting her nipples jut out obscenely. She curves her spine and raises her ass, spreading her thighs for him. 

Joel rests a hand on her ass and massages the round globes. “Good girl. Now hold still, and I’ll give you what you want.” 

“Holy fuck,” is her only response she can manage when he grabs handfuls of her ass and spreads her cheeks, pulling her closer. He guides in his cock, and she belatedly realizes that it’s easier this time around. 

In a matter of no time she’s there again, ready to cum and so sensitive from being teased. “Harder, Joel, please.” 

He doesn’t respond, but he shows he’s heard her when his hips snap up painfully. She can’t help the sounds she makes at this new pace. All the moans and whimpers of his name that she gives him is beyond her control. Her tits swing from the force of him fucking her, stopping only when he reaches forward and gropes at her chest, fitting both of them in his large hands. 

He goes back to holding her hips and fucking her roughly. Thrusting in and out at a rapid speed that makes her insides throb. 

Her walls contract and tug at his cock before she can warn him. She’s a little too loud when she cums, unused to such pleasure, so she understands when his hand comes around to clamp over her mouth. 

His hips slams against her ass a few more times before he’s pulling out and releases his load across the back of her thighs. It’s more foresight than she had, and when she doesn’t feel sleepy, she’ll thank him later. 

It takes a couple of minutes of quiet breathing between them and listening to the woods around them where nothing is stirring, for him to finally relax. He finally pulls her in to his chest, throwing a concerned glance to where her clothes lay scattered. 

“Gonna have to get you dressed.”

She mumbles something incoherent, already drifting off. And he just sighs, his high wearing off as he spoons her and feel the tackiness of his cum drying on her thighs. It’s a long way to Salt Lake City, and he knows he’ll have to deal with all these feelings better than how he just did now. But dammit all to hell if he wouldn’t mind doing that again. 


End file.
